#1585 Acts 16 Part 2 Lydia A Seller Of Purple

 

11 So setting sail from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were staying in this city for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and sitting down, we began speaking to the women who had assembled. 14 And a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening, whose heart the Lord opened to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. Acts 16: 11-15 LSB

Acts 16: 11-15

Vs. 11-12 So setting sail from Troas - Now remember, the Holy Spirit had kept them from going into Asia Minor, so now they are being directed West towards Europe. They start out from Troas, which is now in the country we know as Turkey. This trip is taking them up through the Aegean Sea to Macedonia, which would be to the east side of Greece. When they land in Macedonia they will have to go inland to reach Philippi, a city where a church would be established, a church that would remain dear to Paul even in future letters. 

V. 13 And on the Sabbath we went outside the gate to a riverside - I think this harkens back to the times of the Babylonian exile, when the Jews in Babylon had no temple or synagogue. 

We went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer - Paul normally went first to a local synagogue when he arrived in a new city, but apparently there was none in Philippi. Ten Jewish men who were heads of their household was required to constitute a synagogue, suggesting that Philippi must have had a relatively small Jewish population. This location would have been like an "informal synagogue."

F F Bruce - Had there been ten Jewish men, they would have sufficed to constitute a synagogue. No number of women would compensate for the absence of even one man necessary to make up the quorum of ten. (NICNT-Acts)

Spurgeon - Some quiet corner, where good people were wont to gather by the brook to pray. This was probably the first religious meeting of Christians that was ever held in Europe. It is remarkable that it was a prayer-meeting, a prayer-meeting attended by women, a prayer-meeting to which two ministers came, and preached the gospel to the women who resorted thither. To be able to be present at a prayer-meeting ought always to be reckoned a great privilege to all of us who are Christians. In this way the gospel first came to us; in this way the gospel will be best preserved to us; and in this way we may best obtain guidance from God as to how we may carry the gospel to others. - PA

1By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. 2There on the willows we hung our harps, 3for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”… Psalm 137: 1-3

V. 14 And a woman named Lydia - So under the guidance of the Holy Spirit these men have been directed away from Asia to Europe, then out to the river to meet a special lady. I remember growing up as an Arminian and hearing, "what about that person who never heard the gospel in some remote place', or 'people are going to hell every day because no one is sharing the gospel with them." We can't ignore the Great commission and God has ordained the means, that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, people need to hear the gospel, but only those who are called will believe. What I learned in church, at EE as a kid, was gospel dependent upon my presentation rather than the inworking of the Holy Spirit upon the heart intended to receive it. We will go out and spread the gospel, like in the story of the seed and sewer, but only the tilled ground will produce fruit. There will be ground that won't receive, the rocky sort, and ground that looks like it did, but it gets choked out by weeds, and still ground that even produces a plant, but turns out to be pseudo wheat or tares. But this story shows the great lengths that God will go to to reach His sheep. He is even the One that puts it in their heart to want to know, and then provides someone to tell to the heart that is tilled and prepared. He leaves the 99 to go and find the 1. 

Lydia is a busy woman, a seller of purple, which the area is known for. She is described as a worshiper of God, much like the Ethiopian eunuch or Cornelius. This is someone like Rahab who is brought to know the true God and to assist His people. She is probably the first European convert to Christianity. Note too, and this is the way of Salvation, she was listening, and the Lord had opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. God was working here, and Paul and the others were merely messengers, delivering the gospel that would fill in all the empty or wondering parts of her theology. You hear about Messiah in the readings down by the river, in this makeshift outdoor synagogue, where these women met to pray, and then here comes Paul to announce that Messiah has come and died for your sins.  

From the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics - Thyatira (plural form like Philippi) was famous for its purple dyes as old as Homer (Iliad) and had a guild of dyers as inscriptions show (see Vincent's note below). There was a great demand for purple fabric as it was used on the official toga at Rome and in Roman colonies. (See color picture). (Purple dye).

Thyatira was one of the seven churches (see map) Jesus personally addressed in Revelation Rev 2:18-29 (see comments). Ironically these words were written about 40 years after Lydia's encounter here in Acts 16 and described another woman in Thyatira named Jezebel, the antithesis of Lydia!.

Vincent - The district of Lydia, and the city of Thyatira in particular, were famous for purple dyes. So Homer: “As when some Carian or Maeonian* dame ,Tinges with purple the white ivory, To form a trapping for the cheeks of steeds.”Iliad, iv., 141." (From) An inscription found in the ruins of Thyatira relates to the guild of dyers.

A worshiper of God - Like Cornelius (Acts 10:2), she was a God-fearer or Gentile but was not a full Jewish proselyte. Nevertheless she openly worshiped with the Jews and clearly she was seeking truth. - PA

14Later, as they were eating, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.… Mark 16: 14-16

…6Therefore My people will know My name; therefore they will know on that day that I am He who speaks. Here I am!” 7How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” 8Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, together they shout for joy. For every eye will see when the LORD returns to Zion.… Isaiah 52: 6-8

…43“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus replied. 44“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me—… John 6: 43-45

Macarthur contrasts this woman, Lydia, with other women of that time and todays feminist, very interesting.

I couldn’t help but think in reference to this message of the subject of Women’s Lib, which has so dominated our thoughts, and I’m not going to bore you with all of my thoughts about it, just a few of them. It’s amazing to me that the world and all of these people who are talking about liberation haven’t got the faintest idea what liberation is.

The idea that liberation is going to work, putting your kids in a daycare center - better yet, having abortions whenever you want - that liberation is being free to fool around sexually with anybody you want, that liberation is blatant lesbianism where you join a group and put on a parade, that liberation is shirking the responsibility of the home, that liberation is violating the God-given patterns of love and submission, that is ridiculous. That is not liberation. What these people are really doing is exchanging one kind of human bondage for a worse kind.

The women who are always wanting everything that men have - whoever said men were liberated? That isn’t liberation. You know, what they’re really doing is like the prisoner who exchanged cells and thought he got released. That is not liberation. They’re exchanging one kind of slavery for a different kind. But down deep, I think they soon discover that what they really want is the flight of the soul. They want the soul to be free to transcend the bondage that they’ll never transcend. And so they buy Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and they try to learn to practice so they can fly 240 miles an hour, spiritually.

And that’s why that book sells because it’s a seagull who goes beyond the capacities of seagulls, flies 240 miles an hour, and that’s what people want to do, they want to fly beyond the situation in which they are caught. And all this talk about liberation is a terrible mirror of the fact that people are prisoners, they just have different cells they’re in. There’s no way out.

I’ll tell you something. We’re going to meet a liberated lady named Lydia. And you know what happened to her when she got liberated? When she got liberated, her liberation was contentment to be what God designed her to be, and that’s being liberated. You are liberated when you are free to accept yourself with full acceptance as God designed you to be. That’s being free. And Lydia, the liberated lady, was free. There’s only one kind of liberation and Jesus put it this way, He said, “Ye shall know the truth and” - what? - “the truth shall make you free.” There’s no other liberation.

Paul said, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you” - what? - “free.” There’s only one kind of liberation. And if a person really wants to be liberated, then he comes to Jesus Christ, he is liberated from sin and death and Satan and hell, and he is free to accept all the eternal blessings of God and to accept himself as God made him and be content to be what God designed him to be. That’s liberation. - J Mac Sermon on Acts 16: 11-15

V. 15 And when she and her household had been baptized - Very interesting. She was immediate in her witness to her family. God has gifted her with a business mind as well, yet even as a seemingly busy woman, here response to these men is to provide them hospitality. Later we will see when Paul and Silas are released that they go back to Lydia's house, where they meet with the brothers and sisters in the faith. Buildings are not the church, just places where sometimes the actual church meets, some church buildings are actually a diversion a way from the true church, and it would appear that this little new church now meets in the home of it's first convert. 

40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left. Acts 16: 40